Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Moving targets, in reply to Petra,
What I still don’t get is how stopping pre-1999 ex-MP’s from receiving those perks is retroactively cutting their salaries and making them pay something back.
I don't get it either, Peta. Last year, my partner left KiwiRail after working there, in all its Doctor Who-like incarnations, for forty five years. He got a lovely afternoon tea, presented with a watch and model train handed in his key card and parking permit and he was done. No more free train trips to Wellington, either.
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Hard News: Moving targets, in reply to Sacha,
The truly bizarre thing about that non-story is that a $200 million a day state visit is so gloriously, dementedly implausible (even when you allow POTUS isn’t exactly a solo backpacker) someone's bullshit detector should have redlined. As far as I can tell, Russell is on the money – some folks weren’t going to let the exchange rate get in the way of a good story. (200 million rupees is a tad over US$4.5 million.) Still a considerable chunk of change, but even that’s figure’s rather tricky to verify. For pretty obvious reasons – you’re not exactly going to post an itemized budget of your security on-line.
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Hard News: Moving targets, in reply to nzlemming,
No, snidely bitching the Speaker is really missing the point. While its politically useful for various parties to pretend this has nothing to do with them, it's just bullshit and needs to be called out.
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Hard News: Moving targets, in reply to Phil Lyth,
Suppose a person stands for Parliament, becomes an MP, and then the Remuneration Authority produces a determination halving MPs’ salaries, there is not a damn thing the MP can do. They cannot sue.
Well, actually there is a pretty frigging big "something" they can do -- amend or repeal the Remuneration Authority Act 1977. Honestly, I find it rather disingenuous of MPs to pretend that they're hapless victims of a body whose role and powers are strictly delimited by legislation.
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Hard News: Moving targets, in reply to Phil Lyth,
Dunno, its John Key and Lockwood Smith who are “relaxed” about rules that will allow Pansy Wong to keep a lifetime entitlement to business class travel when she leaves Parliament.
With all due respect, Phil, there's plenty of evidence that opposition parties have been positively sedated about the status quo. While its the Speaker who makes the final call, they've never been made without a lot of cross-party consultation. I'm not seeing any evidence that any opposition leader has been putting the hard word on their former colleagues who've been happily taking their entitlements.
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Meanwhile, shameless chutzpah of the day: Bill English sez Westpac customers owed explanation of executive pay and perks in “difficult economic times." Irony, thy name is not William English.
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Although perhaps largely irrelevant elitist traditions such as the monarchy are beyond adapting to contemporary cultural mores.
Really? The British monarchy is more adaptable than you might think.
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Meanwhile, The Guardian hold forth on that burning-like-a-dose-of-the-clap question: What will Kate Middleton wear on the big day?
I’m seeing… underwear. With a crotch. Nice pair of Spanx.
Though I've got to admit my inner fashionista is praying Middleton is putting in a call to Sarah Burton, who's just done her first solo collection as "creative director" of Alexander McQueen
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Hard News: The Engagement, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Aaargh - the heterosexual camp makes my eyes burn.
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Hard News: The Engagement, in reply to Rob Hosking,
If history had taken a slightly different path (and his two elder brothers fallen prey to Victorian infant mortality), we'd have ended up with a real live King Arthur.
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